Jeff Lovin, Woolpert senior vice president and director of Government Solutions, has been elected vice-president of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). ASPRS, also known as The Imaging and Geospatial Information Society, was founded in 1934 and serves more than 7,000 professional members around the world.

Lovin, who has served on ASPRS committees and as president of the Eastern Great Lakes Chapter, will serve as vice-president in 2018, president-elect in 2019 and president in 2020.

He joins Kass Green, president of Kass Green and Associates, and the late Francis H. Moffitt, who served as a professor at the University of California Berkeley for 36 years, in leading both ASPRS and MAPPS. MAPPS”an association of photogrammetry, mapping and geospatial firms”is the only national association of firms in the surveying, spatial data and geographic information systems fields in the U.S.

It's humbling for me to be included in such distinguished company, Lovin said, and it's a huge honor for me to get the opportunity to serve this great and historic organization in this capacity.

The installation of new officers will take place during the International Lidar Mapping Forum (ILMF) and ASPRS Annual Conference, which will be held jointly for the first time this year. The event, which ASPRS anticipates as being the single largest gathering of geospatial professionals in North America”ever, will be held from Feb. 5-7 in Denver.

I'm always interested in hearing about new technology and related projects, and this conference is always where you hear it first, Lovin said. I think both groups will benefit from the synergy this joint event will create.

Woolpert's Dr. Qassim Abdullah, Michael Meiser and Ryan Bowe all are scheduled to speak at the ILMF/ASPRS conference on topics ranging from the current state of linear mode lidar as compared to Geiger-mode and single photon lidar, to the use of lidar in platinum-group element mining, to lidar and unmanned aircraft system data set documentation.

Lovin is scheduled to speak today at the MAPPS Winter Conference in Kissimmee, Fla. He will present with members from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and share updates on USGS 3D Elevation Program. That conference began Sunday and runs through Thursday.

Lovin said this an intriguing and challenging time for the industry and its professional organizations. Firms are working through economic issues and consolidations, as well as the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, and this is in stark contrast to the rapid changes in the geospatial technology and the escalating competition between firms for the same clients.

With all that said though, it is exciting to see how ASPRS is already adapting to these challenges and continuing to move the industry forward, Lovin said. I am looking forward to helping with that mission.

About Woolpert
Woolpert is a national architecture, engineering and geospatial (AEG) firm that delivers value to clients by strategically blending engineering excellence with leading-edge technology and geospatial applications. With a dynamic R&D department, Woolpert works with inventive business partners like Google and Esri; operates a fleet of planes, sensors and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS); and continually pushes industry boundaries by working with advanced water technologies, asset management, building information modeling (BIM) and sustainable design. Woolpert's mission is to help its clients progress and become more progressive. For over 100 years and with 25 offices across the United States, Woolpert serves the needs of federal, state and local governments; private and public companies and universities; energy and transportation departments; and the United States Armed Forces. The firm currently is doing business in all 50 states and in six countries. For more information, visit woolpert.com or call 937-531-1258.